#BookReview: Running the Rift - Naomi Benaron #BP2W (Rwanda)

What if a civil war broke out between you and people that looked just like you? Can you imagine turning against a friend you've known all of your life simply because they were born into the "wrong" group?  For many Rwandans, this is the reality they lived with for decades, as the war between the Hutus and Tutsis raged.

Jean Patrick lives relatively unscathed by the ongoing rift between Hutus and Tutsis. He is a Tutsi, but several of his friends, and even his running coach, are Hutu.  To him, they are simply people.  And for the longest time, Hutu around him have felt the same way.

But while Jean Patrick is pursuing his dream of distance running in the Olympics, the world around him is crumbling.  Those that he formerly called friends now consider him their greatest enemy. To them, he is now the prey and they are his hunters.

An emotional read, I had to take on Running the Rift at a much slower pace than usual.  It was haunting to read of how easily Jean Patrick's Hutu classmates turned on their Tutsi counterparts.  It was just as disturbing to read about the UN envoys that came in, not to assist or rescue the Tutsi, but to help Americans and other westerners leave Rwanda.  This is a disturbing read, but well worth it.

365pp

Published: January 2012

Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.

In 1959, three years before independence from Belgium, the majority ethnic group, the Hutus, overthrew the ruling Tutsi king. Over the next several years, thousands of Tutsis were killed, and some 150,000 driven into exile in neighboring countries. The children of these exiles later formed a rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), and began a civil war in 1990. The war, along with several political and economic upheavals, exacerbated ethnic tensions, culminating in April 1994 in a state-orchestrated genocide, in which Rwandans killed up to a million of their fellow citizens, including approximately three-quarters of the Tutsi population. - CIA World Factbook

Location: Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo
Size: 26,338 sq km; slightly smaller than Maryland
Ethnic groups: Hutu (Bantu) 84%, Tutsi (Hamitic) 15%, Twa (Pygmy) 1%
Languages: Kinyarwanda (official, universal Bantu vernacular), French (official), English (official), Kiswahili (Swahili, used in commercial centers)
Population: 11,689,696

Anthem: Rwanda nziza (Rwanda, Our Beautiful Country) 

#BookReview: The Cutting Season - Attica Locke

Lovers of historical fiction, thrillers or both, come near.  This is the book for you.  In her latest, Attica Locke deftly weaves the history of a Louisiana plantation with a modern day who done it, and you're going to love it.

Growing up, Caren Gray couldn't wait to escape the grounds of Belle Vie, the plantation her family worked on for generations.   Now she's back in Ascension Parish dealing with the Clancy clan, a cantankerous cook, distrustful staff and a murder.  And she's raising a child in the midst of all that.

Raised on Belle Vie with the Clancy boys, Caren knows them well.  But the murder of a migrant worker has her shook and, suddenly, she's not sure that she can trust either.  Childhood alliances don't mean much when you're dealing with property, money and the family name.

There are rumors of the plantation being sold.  If that were to happen, her staff, already wary of the woman that's one of them, but not really one of them, would think she had something to do with it.  As it is, they're already keeping secrets from her regarding the relationship between the deceased women and the student worker that's being held for the murder. With time running out, and threats being made against her family's life, it's up to Caren to figure out how to save the place she's finally come to love.

When I first started reading The Cutting Season, I wondered what would bring the descendant of slaves back to the very plantation upon which her family was enslaved.  As if the history of the plantation isn't haunting enough, Caren is confronted daily with the cabins in which her ancestors lived, the fields in which they worked and a re-enactment of their lives.  But as I continued to read, it became clear that her family ties to the place were just as deep, if not deeper, than the Clancy's.

The present day story focusing on the murder is interesting, but the more interesting story is found in the history of the plantation and the history of Caren's family, as it relates to the Clancys.  This is a brilliant sophomore effort from Attica Locke.  When I read her first book, Black Water Rising, I complained that it dragged in spots and took entirely too long to get really good.  You won't hear those complaints this time around.  The Cutting Season will pull you in from page one.

384pp
Published: September 2012
Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.

 

Theme: The Pressure (Part I) by Sounds of Blackness

#BookReview: HALF OF A YELLOW SUN by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Set in the late 1960s, Half of a Yellow Sun looks at southeastern Nigeria before, during and after the Biafran war.  Through the eyes of Ugwu, a 13 year old houseboy; Odenigbo, a university professor; and Olanna, the professor's fiancee', readers are given an up close glimpse of the affects of war.  To a lesser degree, we see them through the eyes of Kainene, Olanna's twin sister, and Richard, an English writer who's in love with Kainene.

When Nigeria's, which gained its independence from Britain in 1960, boundaries were initially created, Great Britain failed to take into account the 300 different cultural and ethnic groups comprised of 60 million people.  It was almost inevitable that groups would clash.  For economic reasons and cultural, ethnic and religious tensions, the mostly Igbo inhabited, oil rich area of southeastern Nigeria chose to secede and create their own state of Biafra.  The result of this secession was the Nigerian-Biafran war.

While Odenigbo is most involved in the call for revolution, backed by Olanna, it is really Ugwu that observes and notes the changes that the household goes through over the course of three years.  He serves as a witness to Odenigbo's gatherings of other intellectuals to discuss the state of Nigeria.  He witnesses the arrival of Baby in an already tumultuous household.  And he serves in the Biafran army, giving a firsthand account of the atrocities of war.

As a British expatriate, Richard stays in Nigeria to do research for a book and because of Kainene.  Though Olanna is seen as the beautiful and intelligent twin, Kainene is the ambitious and business savvy twin.  Richard loves her direct way of speaking and falls hard for the sharp-tongued woman.  To a degree, their lives are less affected by the war, but affected nonetheless.

Through her writing, Adichie portrays every facet of emotion in her characters.  From the fall and rise of Odenigbo to the meltdown of the long suffering Olanna, the new found humanity of Kainene and the steadfastness of Ugwu, Half of a Yellow Sun is not just the story of Biafra, it's the story of her people.

448pp
Listening time: 19 hours
Published: September 2006

>